A MANAWATU QUESTION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 45, 16 November 1907, Page 3

A MANAWATU QUESTION.

SYSTEMATIC RIVER ■ PROTECTION. (FROM' OUR" SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) • ' ■ At the' present- time.'- a' good .deal of dis : cu'ssion is taking place, regarding the 'advisability of holding a conference of localbodies for the purpose of setting up a > river board to control the Manawatu and Oroua Rivers from their source to the sea. That the question is one of vital importance is recognised byall* those, who own properties bounding ori these rivers. There is no'reason why the conference should not take place as soon as .r date'ean'be'.'fixed'." By;'such a step no' harm can be done, and much good may be accomplished. Take, for example, the Oroua River at Roid's Line, a point about two miles above Feilding, where there is a possibility that, during any flood, ,the river I may.be diverted from its course and find its way into the Mangaonc. The fall. of tho country is immense . towards Palmerston; i one would not care to predict what extent ! of damage-might be done,. The writer for years past. bemg. familiar with tho locality above'mentioned lias watched the course of the Oroua River with interest. Steadily, year by year, tho bed of the river, especially from Cheltenham down to the junction of the Manawatu, has expanded. Valuable land has been carried away and melted In the flood like sugar., ' A few years ago, a settler on tho Aorangi Block, residing wjthin two hundred yards of tho railway bridge, awoke one morning to find that fully three acres of valuablo-land, now worth £G0 per acre, and containing a valuablo corner of native bush, had been swept away. The land referred to is Government, and the settler was a widow with a large family. Two years later sho adopted the wise course of selling out. Further up the river the settlers have all more or less attmpted to protcct their properties, but have come to one conclusion, that it is of little use doing anything without some assistance from the Government. One settler, Mr. D. Horlihy, has spent somo hundreds of pounds on protection works, and still a greater sum can bo expended in order that the desired effect may be brought about.

The Hon. It. M'Nab was acquainted with the situation, and early this year visited the scene. Ho was not slow to realise, tho position, and suggested that the only effective measure to adopt' would be to protect tho river almost from' its source. If the hon. Minister would, again visit tho locality abovo mentioned, ho would now find that since his last- visit acres of the most valuable land have been swept away. Feildin£ townspeople are to be congratulated upon their movement to form a river board, and Aorangi settlers hayo a good reason for not consenting to fall in with the movement, unless a systematic protection scheme js carried out along tho whole length of tho river.' ' ' .